That’s it. That’s the post.

  • Frank [he/him, he/him]@hexbear.net
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    4 months ago

    The pumps have little screens on the that play adds and yell at you. They used to just use speakers to play the adds to the whole complex, but now they’re right in your face. There’s lots of surveillance, too, since they want to be able to prosecute you if you somehow manage to get gas without paying. It makes sabotaging the screens complicated.

      • Frank [he/him, he/him]@hexbear.net
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        4 months ago

        We need a commercial point of sale sabotage manual. Like we need to comb through the repair manuals for all these things, all these advertising machines, and determine how they can be disabled quickly, quietly, and with minimal evidence by the “end user”.

        • aaaaaaadjsf [he/him, comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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          4 months ago

          That’s one of the reasons some advertising and ATMs have switched to panel speakers, there’s no requirement for vent holes for the sound to escape, so it’s pretty much impossible to vandalise. A physical part of the gas pump or ATM becomes the speaker, by being energised by an audio exciter stcuk to the back side of it. If you see something producing sound with no obvious speaker holes, it’s probably using a DML exciter. It’s actually a very interesting technology, a shame it’s being used in advertising.

            • aaaaaaadjsf [he/him, comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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              4 months ago

              That could make it louder. I’ve built my own set of DML panel speakers, and coating the outside of the panels in a coat of PVA glue enhanced the high frequency sound. If there’s good connection between the epoxy and the surface, and the exciter is powerful enough to energize it with the extra mass of the epoxy, it will still work. Some people even coat their panels in expoy to try enhance the sound in a similar manner to coating in PVA glue. You would have to get the epoxy jammed in on the side with the exciter, which is usually not accessible.

            • Ferrous@lemmy.ml
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              4 months ago

              Exactly where my head went, but with expanding spray foam to get in and out quickly. Don’t know if that would even defeat these panels though.

      • Chronicon [they/them]@hexbear.net
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        4 months ago

        yeah, I genuinely thought about trying to figure out where the essential components of those were so I could pop a little hole in them with a drill but I decided to stop driving for like a year instead